August 23, 2008
Beijing Olympics: Beautiful clear skies on penultimate day of the Games
The clouds cleared today over much of eastern China. MODIS Terra provided a beautiful view. What I like about this image is you can see all the population centers as deforested areas among a vast area of green. Light haze can be seen over the region south of Beijing and over the Yellow Sea, where heavy runoff is visible as well. Click on the image to get a better view; a full resolution image is available from MODIS Rapid Response.
The air pollution index for PM10 was relatively low, ranging from 21-53 depending on location, according to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau. The MODIS Terra aerosol optical depth image (left) shows moderate concentrations of aerosols to the south and especially to the east of Beijing (image courtesy of NASA, NOAA NESDIS and H. Zhang). The OMI NO2 image (right, source: TEMIS shows very high NO2 in the urban areas and in the whole region, suggesting an urban-industrial mix for this haze we're seeing.
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Overall though, conditions look pretty good for the last few days of the Olympics.
Posted by Jill Engel-Cox at August 23, 2008 11:45 PM